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11

Jun

SharePoint 2019 - what’s in it for me?

Microsoft has just announced the new SharePoint 2019 release dates to the market and it seems they have been busy packing SharePoint Online with lots of new features and capabilities, which are backed by Azure and Artificial Intelligence.

With the release of SharePoint 2019, the new platform provides a lot of new, cool features from the SharePoint Online world to on-premises users. In continuation of the effort to support users who maintain SharePoint and OneDrive workloads on-premises, SharePoint 2019 supports powerful, integrated hybrid scenarios out-of-the-box, and delivers user interface improvements including modern team sites, communication sites, list and libraries, pages, and news.

To extend and customise the modern features of the platform, the SharePoint Framework is also available and eliminates sharp differences between sites on-premises and in Office 365. To facilitate the journey to the cloud, the new SharePoint migration tool can be helpful and now it supports automated migration using PowerShell.

Let’s have a look what’s inside the box for business end users, developers and IT pros.

Business/end users

Any device

The very first feature customers have been requesting is to access their content on different devices. Now, with major improvements in user experience, SharePoint 2019 helps ensure that you have access to the information regardless of the screen you choose to access it on.

Navigation

The SharePoint 2019 navigation model is now in line with Office 365.

New sites

Using the cloud as a baseline, Microsoft is bringing the most compelling communication and collaboration experience to on-premises. This includes the introduction of Communication Sites, Team News and modern Team Sites to include lists and libraries with broader data mobility using the Next Generation Sync Client support for reliable access to documents anywhere, anytime.

Business process improvements

With InfoPath living a long and successful life in customising forms, Microsoft brought PowerApps and Flow to take the game to the next level. So far, PowerApps and Flow have been useful and user friendly in the cloud. In SharePoint 2019, Microsoft has improved support for building business processes with PowerApps and Flow.

SharePoint Home

This has been the latest buzzword in cloud. A user can visit SharePoint Home and find all relevant sites or news in one place. Users in SharePoint 2019 will also be able to utilise this feature.

Prepare for cloud

With SharePoint 2019, Microsoft has provided improved hybrid scenarios and support. This will help in preparation for the cloud journey.

Developers

Microsoft started to roll out the SharePoint Framework capabilities from SharePoint 2016 via updates. In SharePoint 2019, we expect to have SharePoint Framework web parts and extensions available. This will enable developers to develop solutions which are in line with a cloud model. This will be a recommended path if you are planning to take the road to the cloud soon.

IT Pros

At the time of writing this blog, there was not specific information available if there are any changes in infrastructure required to run SharePoint 2019. We can assume as this release brings more features and capabilities, the model of installation will stay the same but may require more infrastructure resources if you decide to use OneDrive or similar demanding capabilities.

When is SharePoint 2019 available?

It’s a well know human trait: when we see shiny new things, we want to access them immediately. SharePoint 2019 will be generally available in the second half of 2018.

Call to action

If you are considering an upgrade from your current version to SharePoint 2019, now is the time. Our recommendation is to prepare the current environment in compatible state so that you can move to SharePoint 2019 or cloud, whenever you are ready.